Alex David talks about his new restaurant

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Good day. I'm Bob Pautke, your Connect Clermont host, and our guest today is Alex David. Alex is opening a new restaurant, David's Kitchen and Bar, this June, I think. So, Alex, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me, Bob. 

Tell us a little bit about David's Kitchen and Bar.

Well, it's more of an upscale establishment that my family and I are opening. The reason we called it David's is to kind of give a little homage to my father, my grandparents, any of our relatives. We come from a line of restaurateurs. So it's kind of a cool way of just kind of saying, you know, like, hey, thank you, and thank you for giving us the skill set to be successful in this industry. So we're really excited. So it's located at 1020 Ohio Pike right here in Clermont County.

So what's it going to be like to visit there?

Well, you can expect a variety of items on our menu. There's going to be a lot of similar signatures from our other establishments, such as the Teal Side Diner and Country Inn. But there's going to be some new additions as well. You know, you can go there and get a steak entree if you like. You can go there and get a burger if you like. We're going to have a very cool and exciting look as far as cocktail menus go and drafts go. Obviously, we're going to have our domestic lineups as well. But I'm really excited about the cocktails because if you ask me, you can't find a good one in our side of town. So we're going to find one in a few weeks. You better believe it. You better believe it. We got training happening now. We got a whole staff in there. Yeah, so we're really pumped.

Might there be a David's specific name to cocktail? Have we gone down that path?

We have. And we can share?

I can't give you anything just yet, Bob. But you better believe that there's going to be some really cool options on there.

Perfect, perfect, perfect. I know there is outside patio and outside dining space. So what are your plans for those two areas?

So if you really break it down and if you think about where you can go on this side of town that really has an open patio where you can really kind of mingle, sit down, have a nice drink where there's live music and there's enough space for you and your family to really sit down and enjoy the ambiance, there's not really one on this side of town, Bob. Few and far between. Few and far between, my friend. So really, we're really just – my brother and I, and he's the brains of the operation. I'm the looks and the personality. He's the brains. Don't tell him I said that. No, I'm just kidding. If we were videoing this, the audience would agree with you. Absolutely, absolutely. But no, we really are excited to have that outdoor atmosphere to where you've got the bar, you've got live music, we're going to have fire pits out there as well. There's going to be turf, plenty of fun stuff, plenty of fun stuff coming. Pretty exciting.

So that is a former restaurant. So are there physical changes that you're making in addition to the name and the menu and all that?

So there are some – so obviously we are painting. We are bringing in some new equipment as far as the kitchen goes. Little things here and there as far as the prep room and the coolers. The banquet room, for instance, we're adding a bar with a draft system up in the banquet room. So it's really pretty, really, really pretty. So it's going to be – maybe there's a wedding reception, you want to reserve it for a night. It's going to be really pretty.

That's awesome. Absolutely. So just off of the restaurant for a moment, what was your journey to become a restaurateur?

Oh, my goodness. Owner-operator? Well, I'll tell you what. I was born in it. I was molded by it. As, like I said before, my grandparents did it, my dad did it. 

So did you work in restaurants?

I was about 12 years old, busing tables, working in the dishroom. I can attest with my brother as well. He was getting his hands dirty just as I was. You know, when you have a family business, it's really, you know, you're going to be there, whether really you like it or not. But at the same time, it's a skill set that not a lot of people will have and develop. You know, for instance, my relatives, they have, you know, the Butterbees and the Tenner Towns. They're excellent restaurateurs. And just like me and my brother, my cousins, same thing. They grew up in it. It's just something that we do. It's something that we're very good at.

But I've left the industry before, like I was telling you earlier. I've been a student here at Clermont, and I was an awful student. I've been an employee at different companies, TQL, for instance. Oh, no kidding. Yeah, I am not a good employee. I'm a good leader, and I'm a good restaurateur. But it's in 2018, April 2018, my brother and I stepped in. Dad retired at that time, and we stepped in to kind of give some life to Country Inn. And, you know, the fact that we are where we are at this moment in time, we're very fortunate. We're very blessed. It's taken a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, literally, to get up to this moment in time. So we find ourselves in a spot where we are very fortunate.

But it's funny how God works. He puts you in certain situations, and, you know. He knows you can do it, and you're not so sure. Yeah, you can say that. I've been having stress streams. My brother tells me the same thing. But, yeah, it's been a long journey. And, you know, my brother and I will look at each other and laugh and be like, you know, five years ago, we were dreaming of something like this. Five years ago, we were, you know, we were standing there in the kitchen going, you know, one day we're going to have not only just one restaurant, maybe even three. And that's kind of our goal is to establish ourselves in the community, which I think we've done a pretty good job of, and we're going to continue to grow and continue to work hard.

Restaurant business is a difficult business. I've never owned a restaurant. I've eaten a lot of them, and in yours. Thank you. 

So talk about the business side of that. Do you have a typical day, a typical week? 

I always tell people as soon as my feet hit the floor, it's pretty much nonstop. Actually, before I even get out of bed, I'm looking at my phone, and I've got texts and calls, and whether it's call-offs, whether we're out of something, whether it's issues with the dish room, you name it. So as far as the business aspect of it.

So, again, my brother, he's very much the numbers guy. He's very much, like I said before, he's the brains of the operations. My strengths lie in operations itself. I'm very good at making things run step by step the way that it's supposed to run. Smoothly. Exactly. So my strength is making sure that it runs like a clock, and you want it to run like a machine. So that in itself, it sounds easy, but that in itself is you have to make sure. It's like a symphony. Each note has to be perfect. Everything has to line up the way it's supposed to line up in order for you to execute, in order for you to execute the steps of service, the way food comes out of the kitchen, the way you prep for dinner, the way you prep that morning shift, inventory scheduling.

I'm very fortunate. My brother and I are very fortunate that we have a really strong team around us. 

Which doesn't happen by accident. 

No, no. And I will give that over to my brother. I've got to give him a lot of credit because if it wasn't for him, and again, I'm sure he'd say the same with me, we're a good team. A good team. We're a good team. Because his strengths and his weaknesses kind of line up with my strengths and my weaknesses. It's funny how it works. 

That's the best teams are that way. Yes, sir.

So you said that you grew up in a restaurant family, and then you went off and you tried corporate work, I guess, for a little bit. And you missed the hustle and bustle of the restaurant. 

You know something? There's a crazy part of me that really, it's kind of fun because you really never know what's going to happen that day. You really never know. It's going to get crazy. Some days are slow. Some days, just any day in life, some days are easy and you're going through the motions, and other days you're flipped upside down and you don't know what the hell is going on. But you've got to keep pushing forward. You've got to keep working hard.

I love that, your analogy of the symphony, because you are a maestro. 

Yeah, of course. In a symphony, the maestro is not playing the drums or the flute. He's not playing an instrument. But without that leader, without that maestro, it's just noise. Absolutely.

So overall, how many staff? Let's ask first at Country Inn. How many people work in Country Inn? I would say, because I know altogether, if I were to put both Teal Side and Country Inn, I think 60? I would say maybe a little bit less. So good amount. That is a good amount.

And so my brother always tells me that it's bigger than just me and him. It's bigger than just the two of us. It's people that feed their kids, that feed their families, that invest in their futures. And this is everything to them, just as it's everything to us. So it's bigger than just a couple of guys just out here trying to... Yeah, it's big. And he put that perspective in my head. It's the truth. It fuels you in a different way, for sure. It does. It absolutely does.

So those people that are working for you, I mean, they have families, they have livelihoods, and you're providing that opportunity. 

Absolutely.

So how many additional people do you think you will be adding for David's? And how does that work? Do you take some people that you're already working with and take them to the new restaurant? So for sure on that one, Bob. So we have a lot of, not all of our strong employees, but a good amount of people that we know and trust, that know our expectations and know how we want things done and when we want things done. And so we're bringing them over to the new place and we're also hiring externally as well. We have people applying and every day we have interviews happening. So we're staffing up and training as we speak.

If you go on our Facebook page, you'll see that we have bartenders in training. You'll see that we're hiring servers. We're bringing people in. We have new employee handbooks coming out, new training handbooks coming out as well. So it's step by step, brick by brick.

So if folks wanted to learn more about David's, where can they look? You can look on our Country Inn, Littlesville Facebook page. We are posting all the time. Like I said, we have someone who's great at marketing. I'm terrible at marketing. So we have someone who's much better at me than that.

Actually, the best marketing is your servers being polite and you're serving great food. Absolutely, absolutely. And that's what we tell them because, you know, Bob, you go to a lot of restaurants and I probably, I think a lot of people can attest to this as well. It's just not good, you know. A lot of the franchise restaurants, their quality of service is, and maybe I'm a little bit crazy. I'm definitely a little bit crazy. I'm in an industry that I'm in. But since COVID, COVID really separated the good restaurants from the bad restaurants. And the ones that were good really, really were able to thrive and the other ones that weren't just couldn't do it.

And you see that a lot with people that come in. You know, the main thing that people want to tell me is that, you know, hey, we appreciate not only the good food, but for a fair price. And we also appreciate the service as well because you can tell that we go out of our way to memorize your name. You know, we see you, we know who you are. Come in, we're going to get you taken care of. I'm going to get you drinks to your table in under 30 seconds. I'm going to get your food into the kitchen in under two minutes. You know, it's step-by-step service. And, you know, it's not just because good food isgreat. Good food is awesome. But food with bad service is not good. If the service is bad, I'm not going to go back. And even the founder of Chick-fil-A, his first three rules are customer service, customer service, customer service.

And again, this is everything that my brother, he's kind of instilled in me because I was always a kitchen guy. Always a kitchen guy. That's where I shine. I'm really good at it. I know how to run a kitchen. I was a cook for years.

But you do some of the cooking now? 

Not necessarily. I've got very talented cooks back there who really, really, really do a good job. Really do a good job.

But I'd say, oh God. When my dad had it growing up, you better believe it. I was probably one of the main guys back there, just as well as my brother, just as my dad was. That's what we did.

Do you put together menus? So my brother, he's got a lot of great creative ideas. And he'll kind of format the menu himself. And then him and I will sit down together and just kind of balance ideas off of each other. And so a lot of the signatures at Country Inn and at Tealside, he kind of came up with himself. But again, we throw things off of each other. Maybe this will work. Maybe that'll work. The different specials that we have. And not all of them. Not all of them are a hit. It happens. Not all of them are going to be a home run. But when we nail it, we nail it. It's perfect.

Thank you. So talking back about David's Kitchen and Bar. So when you were anticipating that opening. We were aiming for, I think, the middle of May. But like I said. So as we're recording this, we're sort of around that area. But much to do. So we're aiming for beginning of June around that time. We just got done putting a lot of the equipment in. Moving a lot of things around. It's really pretty. Really, really pretty. We have a very talented guy who's done the painting. Who's kind of done giving it a little personality. Really pretty building.

So it's going to. The biggest thing is that it's going to be something in this community that hasn't really been around. So, you know, everyone came up to me and said, we don't want a sports bar. We're done with sports bars. We're done with sports bars. And I tell them, I promise you, it's not going to be a sports bar. This might even be a place where you can dress up a little bit. It's going to be a nice ambience. Nice dim lights. Come in, nice ambience. You can have the best of both worlds.

So we're going to have the outdoor patio. We're going to have live music. Not every night. Maybe Friday nights, Saturday nights. But, you know, it's going to be. And again, we're going to do what we do best:

And you're adding cocktails into that mix. Absolutely. Absolutely, my friend. We're adding a little personality, as they might say. I can't wait. Yes, sir. I'm so looking forward to this. Yes, sir.

So if you think, you know, five, eight years out, what would you hope people will be saying about David's Kitchen and Bar? We hope that they will be saying that it is a big staple in the community. And in that time span of five to eight years, we hope to build it brick by brick, plate by plate, customer by customer, and taking it as far as we can. And, you know, knock on wood, you know, God willing, we'll have more than just one, you know. So those are our plans. Remember, you heard it here first. That's right. That's right.

So we plan on putting together an empire as we currently are working on. And, you know, we're going to continue to work towards it. Excellent. Excellent.

Is there something about David's Kitchen and Bar that you think the audience ought to hear again where we haven't talked about? It's going to – I think the one thing that I would really reiterate about David's is that it will be the first of its kind on this part of town. I really truly believe that it will be something that really stands out from your typical sports bar, from your fast food joint, from your mom-and-popdiner. As much as people love a good mom-and-pop diner, that's our bread and butter. At the end of the day, that's what we do best. is breakfast and lunch. I mean, we're really good at it. That's what my grandparents did, that's what my dad did, and that's what we do. But like I said, I truly believe this will be the first of its kind. And I'm really excited. And the community itself, it's really cool to see everyone kind of back it up and really show support and really show excitement about David's. That's good. And I do think the community is hungry for a little bit more upscale and all of that.

David's Kitchen and Bar is located at 1020 Ohio Pike, right here in Clermont County. We'll be open early June-ish, thereabouts.

And our guest today has been Alex David, who is the owner, co-owner with his brother of David's Kitchen and Bar, along with Country Inn and Tealside Diner. 

So David, thank you very much. Alex, thank you very much for being here. Thank you, Bob. Wishing you the best of luck. Thank you. I think we'll probably have you back at some time to talk about the cocktails. I'd love to be back. I'd love to be here again, and I appreciate your time, Bob. Awesome. Thanks, Alex. Have a good day. Thank you.

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